There are as many opinions about how to self-promote as there are authors trying
each method. Is there one surefire quick-and-easy method to success? No! If there
was, we’d all be using it, and we’d all be retiring to the tropical islands of our
wildest dreams to live in unparalleled luxury for the remainder of our oh-so-pampered
days.

Successful promotion takes a lot of time and effort...and if you’d simply rather
be writing, then the method outlined below is probably not for you. Perhaps it would
pay to hire a publicist on your behalf. But beware of the con artists who promise
at least 500 new Likes on Facebook within the next week, or guarantee you a boost
in sales. The first group is a total fraud because they simply create a bunch of
bogus accounts and use them to Like your posts, which is tantamount to whistling
into the wind. The second group are simply liars, because no one can guarantee anything
when it comes to selling books.

The method below will take quite a bit of time and effort to set up, especially if
you have multiple books you’d like to promote. But several of our authors have used
it quite successfully, so we’d like to present it as a possible option for those
interested and willing to spend the time.

Many thanks to Becca Sinh for allowing us to use her new book, “Compromising Clara,”
as an example.

How many social media websites are there? You might as well ask, how many stars are
there in the sky? Far too many to count, and more are being added all the time. Many
of these fade away as quickly and quietly as they appeared, so it pays to concentrate
on just the most popular ones unless you happen to be marketing to a specific corner
niche that uses one of the borderline blogs.

Currently the most popular social media websites are Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, and
Reddit. Each of these sites has its pros and cons; Facebook is becoming more and
more restrictive about what content it will allow. Twitter only allows extremely
short “tweets.” Tumblr and Reddit are wide-open, and will allow any posts as long
as they don’t promote violence, hate crimes, etc. But their very size can make them
daunting, especially for beginners.

The first step to any social media campaign is, obviously, creating accounts at every
site you plan to use, taking care to read through their Terms of Service first so
you don’t violate them and get permanently banned.

Tumblr is most authors’ favorite site, for two simple reasons: They allow photos
to be included in their posts (even if the photos are extremely graphic), and they
will simultaneously submit your post to Facebook and Twitter. This saves you considerable
time and effort!

Reddit is also very popular because of its open-door policies regarding content and
posts. But whereas, with Tumblr, your posts are blanketing the entire network and
anyone who’s Friended you will see them, Reddit uses a blog-page structure. You can
create your own Reddit page (many authors do), or post on a page that’s been created
by another author. There are many Reddit pages devoted to every possible genre, so
a quick search should provide you with a nice selection of pages to promote yourself,
ask questions from other authors, and interact in a (hopefully) friendly atmosphere.
(Before posting book excerpts, always make sure that Reddit page allows self-promotion…many
do not. And should you decide to create your own Reddit page, if your content is
adult-oriented, BE SURE to select the NSFW feature.)

So, let’s get started with your first book. The idea is to post excerpts that will
pique a reader’s interest. If you’ve written an adventure story, this might be one
of the hero’s death-defying leaps into the abyss. If you’re promoting a romance,
you might choose some tender, romantic moment, or a humorous scene that makes the
reader empathize with the main characters. If you’ve written a good book, there will
be many such excerpts to choose from.

Choose an excerpt of about 300-350 words, copy it into a separate file, and label
it however makes the most sense to you...for example, “Clara 001.” Go down another
page, find another excerpt that looks intriguing, and do the same. By the time you’re
finished, you should have between several and several dozen (depending on the length
of your book) excerpts saved. Now go back and rename them in random order. “Clara
001” might become “Clara 006” and “Clara 012” might become “Clara 002.” It doesn’t
matter what order they’re in, as long as it’s not sequential.

Next, add a link at the bottom of each excerpt that promotes where your book can
be found. Since you’ll likely be published on multiple sites, choose the one that
pays you the best royalty rate. If you have your own website with its own shopping
cart, obviously you’ll want to choose that one. (Remember that if you’re publishing
through a publishing company, they’re going to take their own cut on top of whatever
the affiliate takes.)

The link might read something like: Want to read more? Click here! And work a hyperlink
into part or all of the sentence. DO NOT mention the book’s price.

The most time-consuming (but potentially the most fun) part of the process will be
finding pictures online that match what’s happening in each excerpt. So if you post
an excerpt where the heroine is slapping some jerk’s face, find a picture online
that matches the action. If you’re promoting a sex scene, use a picture that shows
exactly what you’re trying to describe...and yes, you can be very explicit on Tumblr.

Last, think up a funny or eye-catching tagline for your picture. If you’re clever
with a graphics program, you can work the tagline into the picture. If not, just
type it beneath the picture when you make your post. Copy the photo and the tagline
into your excerpt document, and save it. Some visual examples are below:

Once you have all your excerpts compiled, along with good photos, taglines, and hyperlinks,
it’s time to post the first one. Go to Tumblr, and follow the instructions to post
a picture, the tagline, the story excerpt, and the hyperlink at the end. Once you’re
happy with the way it looks, submit the post...and be sure to have it auto-submit
to Twitter and Facebook, too. (Just remember that Facebook will not allow explicit
photos, so plan your submissions accordingly.)

Next to go Reddit, and follow the same process. Once you’ve done it a few times,
you’ll be surprised at how easy it is.

If you have your own blog page, or post on other social media sites, submit there
at the same time.

A few hours later, pick the next excerpt in line (and now do you see why they should
be in random order? So that anyone reading them will not be able to easily piece
together the entire story!) and submit that to all your social media sites. A few
hours later, repeat the process with the third excerpt. And so on.

If you have multiple books, interweave them so that you’re posting a different random
excerpt from a different book each time.

When you reach the end...start again from the beginning. (And remember, once you’re
familiar with the process, you can set up some sites to auto-submit on your behalf.)

Although it sounds like this process will take hours every day, in actual fact, it
won’t once you get used to each program’s submission process. Copy, paste, submit.
Copy, paste, submit. It will go very quickly. The time and effort is in putting together
all the excerpts...and of course in maintaining a regular schedule for posting your
excerpts across the board. Some authors only post a few times a day...morning and
evening, for example…while more prolific authors may submit every two or three hours.
The key is to keep it consistent, so that a new excerpt is being read regularly.

Don’t expect to see immediate results; no matter how provocative your photos and
excerpts might be, you’re not going to be listed on the NY Times Bestseller List
within a few hours, or even a few days. It might take weeks before your sales start
to increase. And we won’t lie to you: there’s no guarantee that they ever will. But
one thing we can guarantee: The more people who see your excerpts, the better your
chances become. So don’t give up, even if the entire process becomes a discouraging
routine. If your excerpts are good, and your photos are eye-catching, readers will
take notice...and once they do, the chances of them clicking your link to read more
will go way up.